With the advent of the digital camera, professional and lay photographers have been able to more easily and conveniently upload, store, edit, and enhance theft digital images. These digital cameras allow a photographer to send digital images captured by a digital camera via a data transfer means such as by direct data transfer (e.g. memory-to-memory transfer), email, and the internet. Additionally, a photographer may order prints by sending digital images captured by a digital camera to a retailer or vendor, who then uploads the digital images, prints the digital images, and sends the prints to the photographer.
A photographer may wish to arrange his or her digital images in a photo album or other compilation of a number of images. Such a compilation of images may serve several functions or have advantages over a single image print. One advantage to creating a compilation of images is that an arrangement or layout of images in a compilation may be aesthetically appealing. Another advantage to creating a compilation of images is that a viewer may easily view several images of any number of subjects, and appreciate the compilation of the individual images as a whole as well as the individual images themselves. These compilations of images may be presented in tangible form as in the case of a photo album, or in an intangible form through the use of computer software or websites.
Presently, computing devices such as personal computers, and associated software can be utilized to create such albums or compilations. However, present computing devices, software, and methods of creating image albums can be inconvenient and limit a photographer's artistic freedom in designing various aspects of the compilation. Further, these systems do not allow a user to select, edit, and arrange images in an album or other compilation while still controlling specific design aspects which influence the overall compilation. In other words, none of these systems and methods provide for a means to optimize an entire album or other compilation of images using multiple levels of design techniques. For example, present systems and methods may employ a library of templates or layouts that a photographer may use to create a compilation of images. These templates may allow for automatic or manual placement of images into the various “holes” or image placement regions in the template. In some systems, the templates are constructed for each set of digital images according to theft aspect ratios and user preference for the image display size. However, none of these systems provide for a means to automatically or manually arrange images in a compilation based on the content or subject matter of the images.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.